Daily fantasy sports operator FantasyUp has gone belly-up, leaving an unknown number of customers high and dry.
Concerns about FantasyUp’s stability had been voiced as early as last summer and the matter came to a head this week. Customers were sent emails saying the site “no longer has the capital to fund even minimal operations,” let alone “the funds needed to process the withdrawals to all customers.”
The email, which was signed by ‘The FantasyUp Team,’ said the site’s owners and investors “continued to fund the business while waiting for the financing deal” i.e. the mysterious collaboration with a “national-wide brand” the site had cited last July as somehow being the cause of its inability to access customer funds to process withdrawals.
FantasyUp now says the financing deal was “delayed for investor personal issues” leading the site’s owners to conclude that they had “no choice but to shut down the business and dissolve.” The email said the company had legally dissolved as of Thursday (14).
Fantasy player Dan Ziernicki started FantasyUp in 2014 with what Forbes reported as $3.5m won playing on rival DFS site FanDuel. FantasyUp appeared to have resolved most of its original payout issues by August, only to have the problem resurface in December, and here we are.
FantasyUp’s demise will likely prove useful for both sides of the DFS divide, with the pro-camp using it as an argument for sensible regulation to weed out less reputable operators while the anti-camp will cite it as further evidence that all DFS operators are Ponzi scheming charlatans out to separate God-fearing ‘Muricans from their cold hard cash.
ZYNGA CEO BACKS NEW DFS STARTUP FOR SHORT ATTENTION SPANS
As one DFS sun sets, another rises. This week saw the launch of Boom Fantasy, a New York-based startup whose investors include Mark Pincus, CEO of social gamers Zynga. Boom Fantasy is the DFS equivalent of in-play betting, as it allows players to compete in contests with windows as short as 10 minutes.
Boom Fantasy essentially offers a series of prop wagers – between seven and 50, depending on the tournament format – on various aspects of live sports events. Wager correctly on more questions than your opponents and boom goes your dynamite. The real-money product is live in 12 US states with additional states to be added later this year. The play-money version is accessible in all 50 states.
Boom Fantasy CEO and co-founder Stephen A. Murphy said the format caters to “real fans who actually want to watch the games – not necessarily the number-crunchers who use complicated algorithms to outperform other lineups.”
